Game Day: Rangers Face The Rival IslandersThe Atlantic Division foes have picked up their play lately,,,

Chris Drury has looked pretty good so far, but he needs to start chipping in offensively

Islanders @ Rangers

Madison Square Garden, 7:00 Monday

Rangers record: 20-14-2

Islanders record: 8-18-6

After one of their best weeks of the season the Rangers have
now lost two games in a row but have a very good opportunity to get on another
roll this week with games against the hapless New York Islanders and the New
Jersey Devils.

After a brutal stretch in which the Islanders lost 20 of 21
games, the team has started to come together over the last week and has won
three of its last four.The biggest
reason for that has been the improved play in their own zone where they have
only given up seven goals over the last four games despite employing three
different goalies.The Islanders face
off against the Montreal Canadiens tonight and Dwayne Roloson will make his
third straight start.He has the hot hand
for the Islanders, but it’s unclear if he’ll be good to go for the second game
of the back-to-back tomorrow night.The
Islanders still linger at the bottom of the NHL in most statistical categories,
but they’re 3-14 on the power play in the last four games and 19-22 on the
penalty kill.Those are certainly
improvements percentage wise, but the Rangers might be able to take advantage
if they can force the Islanders to take a few extra penalties.Rob Schremp and Blake Comeau have been
leading the way offensively for the Islanders lately as both have nine points
in December.The team desperately needs
more from sophomore John Tavares who has had a very disappointing season.

Reports from the Rangers beat writers today indicate that
everyone practiced except Derek Boogaard who is still battling concussion symptoms.The lines at practice were
Dubinsky/Stepan/Gaborik, Frolov/Anisimov/Drury, Fedotenko/Boyle/Prust, and
Avery/Christensen/White.It doesn’t look
like Mats Zuccarello will be making his second NHL appearance, despite a strong
debut.It’s possible that the Rangers
may have been hoping to get Zuccarello back into the lineup this week but won’t
be able to due to weather.

The Rangers haven’t played much at all lately, so it will be
important for them to come out lively.The Islanders toil at the bottom of the standings and they’re playing
tonight too so the Rangers should have plenty more energy.They can’t take the Islanders for granted
though; despite all the negative attention the team has gotten this year it has
begun to play much better.The Islanders
also typically play the Rangers very tough, so this won’t be an easy two
points, but it’s certainly an important game that the Rangers shouldn’t
lose.